If Morality Is Objective, How Can We Know It?
Brett Kunkle explains how we can know the difference between subjective truth and objective truth.
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Are the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy filled with "objective morality" and "moral truths"? Do you think the first four of the ten Commandments represent "moral truths"? When birds migrate for thousands of miles, do they do so because of a "moral truth" provided by a higher intelligence or is it due to natural selection (competitive advantage + enhanced breeding success) favoring the birds that migrate? Can you conceive of inherent advantage (via natural selection) to people who regard murder, theft, and untruthfulness as wrong and inherently self-destructive?
Brett,
Please be honest, OK? First, you actually believe in the God, Yahweh, and ultimately assert He is the ultimate foundation for ‘objective’ morality. But let’s see if that would and/or could ever work:
THEIST ATTEMPT TO AVOID PLATO’S EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA
Brett's God is considered, by His very nature, good. [I.e., 1. God’s nature is the grounding for morals and duties. 2. God also exists in an eternal timeless state.]
COUNTER SKEPTICS ARGUMENT
It is logically impossible that Brett’s type of God [as he’d actually define it] can be the grounding or source for objective morality:
1. Now because God is in an eternal timeless state, his nature has always been fixed this way; so,
2. God could have never existed in a state where this was not the case; and,
3. God could never change his nature going forward—due to the nature of timelessness.
• So, it is by pure happenstance that Brett’s God ended up with this nature—as there are no factors that could have contributed to this state.
In short, it is due strictly to the reality that He finds himself in; and that is the definition of random: made, done, happening, or chosen without method or conscious decision.
Now whether we believe other realities are real, possible, or hypothetical, we can use them to understand why this morality cannot be objective. If this real or hypothetical other reality has a God in the same circumstance, there is no non-random reason that this God would have the same type of moral nature. Therefore we can conclude that even with this grounding argument, that God’s nature is subject to the happenstance reality that he finds himself in.
This then leads us to the final conclusion: that this Brett’s God’s grounded morality is subjective and impossible to be objective.
So, Brett, now what’s your point?
yinYangMountain
Notes:
– arbitrary: based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system.
– random: made, done, happening, or chosen without method or conscious decision.
– happenstance: a circumstance especially that is due to chance.
– subjective: based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
I would like to see a response to Bionic Dances counter position to this video.
God isn't real.
so how can we know it? you cant just say its self evident. that is obviously just a cop out and if its really the best you can do, saying "it is self evident", i mean wow you are pathetic.
This sounds more like subjective morality. By this definition morality is subject to the individual's core values and not the core values of the universe.
I think this is only a partial answer. What happens if our moral intuition is wrong due to our fallen nature? What if our conscience has been compromised? Does not the answer to knowing objective moral truth lie in knowing Who creates moral Law?